Crypto madness: $112.5M Ripple hack, $1.7B Bitcoin seizure, Binance sued again

From a $1 100 million Ripple hack to one Of the biggest Bitcoin seizures in History this isn't an episode to Miss good morning you're listening to The ryzen crypto podcast by coin Telegraph with me Robert bags steering You through the crypto Cosmos with daily Dispatches from the digital Frontier if you want to aams razor your Way to the front of the pack in crypto Make sure you click that follow button Okay grab yourself a coffee and let's Get into It I've only just start recording but I Think this is going to be one of the Most interesting episodes of all time Orbe it dark in places up first the Chairman of Ripple Chris Larson has been Hacked for $12.5 million next binance is being sued Again but this time by her Mass Terror Victims the stable coin issuer tether Has posted record profits in 2023 the Attempted purchase of a $30 million Mansion with crypto leads to a massive Bitcoin seizure in London and a Fascinating study shows that 84% of Bitcoin investors believe new alltime Highs are on the Horizon regular listeners will know that There are a handful of personalities in Crypto that are on a pedestal for Varying reasons one of those is the Digital detective and onchain operative

Zack xbt yesterday Zach broke one hell Of a story and potentially forced the Subject of the story to announce it Zach's post on X read as follows it Appears that Ripple was hacked for 213 Million xrp 11 $1.5 million us Zack xbt Then linked The Source address followed By so far the stolen funds have been Laundered through Mech C Gates binance Kraken okx htx hit BTC Etc Chris Larson The co-founder and executive chairman of Ripple quoted Zach's post and included The following text yesterday there was Unauthorized access to a few of my Personal xrp accounts not Ripple we were Quickly able to catch the problem and Notify exchanges to freeze the affected Addresses law enforcement is already Involved several people commented on This post to ask whether Larson would Have come forward had Zack xbt not outed The hack regardless underneath Larson Added this is an isolated incident and Ripple wallets are secure were never Compromised we've confirmed nearly all The affected funds were converted out of Xrp we're working with law enforcement And have been advised that a significant Portion of funds have been frozen and we Are pursuing the remainder aggressively So Larson didn't confirm or deny Zak xpt His post with regards to the stolen Amount but given that he quoted Zach and Didn't correct it it seems fair to say

That it was either close or correct now With those three posts in mind the one From Zack xbt and two from Chris Larson I want to marry up two pieces of Information to see how they look next to Each other a few of Larson's personal Xrp accounts were hacked for $12.5 Million sorry what larsson's wording of Unauthorized access to a few of my Personal xrp accounts makes it sound Like he lost lost at most a few th000 Not 112.5 million Zack xbt did actually Reply to lon's post with What suggests Possibly the most plausible reason for This Zach wrote totally completely Separate entities wink wink in short it Seems that Zach thinks lson is jumping On the hack grenade to protect the Integrity of Ripple as far as how much Ripple was affected by this it did take A slight hit on price but nothing too Wild now we just have to wait and see How exactly larsson's personal accounts Were Act binance may have settled with the United States Department of Justice but A thread to that case has returned in a New and deeply somber lawsuit victims of The 7th of October attack on Israel by Hamas are suing the governments of Iran And Syria but also binance and its ex CEO Chang penao CZ and they're doing so Under the United States antiterrorism Act the plaintiffs include former

Hostages and family members who want Compensation punity damages and Reimbursement of costs claiming that the Defendants provided substantial Assistance to terrorists the filing Stated defendant binance processed Numerous transactions associated with Hamas and related Palestinian terrorist Groups between 2017 and mid 2023 Providing a clandestine financing tool That binance deliberately hid from us Regulators I am of course not in a Position to speak on the veracity of These claims but we did report on coin Telegraph just 3 days after the attack That binance froze accounts linked to Hamas militants as per requests from Israeli law enforcement but that doesn't Answer the question of whether binance Did everything it reasonably could to Combat Terror financing the plaintiffs Went on to site the $4.3 billion November settlement between binance and The doj stating that the US Department Of Justice doj and US Regulators Disclosed that for years binance Knowingly permitted illicit actors Including Hamas and other Terror groups To inade us laws and Regulatory Restrictions related to Terror financing We did reach out to binance for comment On this story but we didn't receive an Immediate Response okay let's change gears here

With something a little less dark the Stable coin issuer tether has become one Of the real success stories of crypto What makes this all the more impressive Is that much of the gains have been made During the icy depths of a crypto winter 2022 was one of the most difficult years In the industry and it saw a frozen Army Of crypto firms submitting to the Conditions and filing for bankruptcy but All the while tether was busy channeling Its inner earners Shackleton the Company's objective was to back its Stablecoin usdt with higher quality Assets we've seen stable coins deeg in The past over fears that the reserves Are not sufficient to back the Circulating supply of their token well Tether has put some real distance Between itself and fud after posting Record-breaking net profit in quarter 4 Of 2023 a staggering $2.85 billion this Brought brought the net profit for the Year to $6.2 billion $4 billion of which Was generated by non-crypto Investments This was primarily achieved through United States Treasury Securities tether Now has 91.6 billion in assets under Management with $2.5 billion in Bitcoin $3.5 billion in gold and $1.5 billion in Venture Capital Investments as for Treasury Securities tether CEO and one Of our favorite crypto characters Paulo Arduo said in September that the company

Is one of the world's top buyers of us Treasury bills that doesn't seem like an Unreasonable claim to make given that Tether now has $80.3 billion worth of us Treasuries treasury bills are considered To be one of the safest Investments you Can make as they are backed by the US Government and their returns are not to Be sniffed at in December the yield for The one-year us treasury bill was 4.7% So it's pretty clear how tether has Managed to become so profitable Particularly in the last few years Analysis from zipia shows that tether Currently employees only 125 people Which brings the net profit per employee To $22.8 million in the last quarter of 2023 to put that in perspective Apple Was in the top 20 companies in the US by Profit per employee last year they Recorded $69,000 of profit per employee number One in the US by this metric the energy Firm Koko Phillips managed $2 million Per employee tether did over 10 times That in Q4 but obviously the low number Of employees at tether ex Skuse the Result but still it's no less impressive In 2023 tether managed to accumulate $5.4 billion in excess reserves which Covers the $4.8 billion in secured loans Outstanding in a statement the company Said tether is proud to announce that it Has achieved its goal of removing the

Risk of secured loans from the token Reserves while such loans are widely Over collateralized tether's usdt stable Coin now represents 70% of all stable Coins in circulation quite the market Share A fantastically bizarre story came out Of my own little island this week and it Has taken a court case to bring it to Light I have no idea how this happened To Stones Throw from where I live and Was so successfully kept Under Wraps the Story has two main characters zimin Xian And Gian Wen w is a Chinese National but Has been a British citizen since 2018 And was recruited to assist Chan in Money laundering Chan came to the UK Under a false identity with funds taken From an investment fraud scheme in China From 2014 to 2017 when worked in a Chinese Takeaway restaurant in southeast London and lived in a room beneath the Restaurant before meeting Chan when on Chan's behalf tried to buy luxury items And real estate with Bitcoin including a Property for £23 million or about $30 Million this seven bed mansion with a Swimming pool was in hamstad which for Those who haven't been to London is a Leafy suburb that houses for the most Part the Rich and Famous the purchase of The house did not go through because When couldn't explain the source of the Assets and before long the police were

Raiding the house when and Chan were Renting this house was also in hamstad And the rent was $21,500 per month so inside the property There was a safety deposit box that Contained digital wallets the digital Wallets each had crypto on them that Totaled embrace yourself here 61,000 Bitcoin at the time of their seizure Back in 2021 this was worth 1.7 billion Reuters reported yesterday that Chan's Fraud yielded as much as $6.3 billion Upon W's arrest she first claimed the Crypto had been mined 61,000 Bitcoin Mined to put that in perspective in November last year coin gecko tallied up All of the top 14 Bitcoin mining Companies by total Holdings and between All of them they held about 39,000 Bitcoin W quickly changed her story and Said that some of the Bitcoin was a love Present when is currently on trial at Souther Crown Court for three counts of Money laundering between October 2017 And January 2022 though prosecutor Jillian Jones told the jury that when Was not involved in the fraud committed By Chan to acquire the Bitcoin speaking Of Chan who used a fake name and Identity while here in the UK she Seemingly got wind of the authorities Closing in and vanished her whereabouts Are still unknown and the trial Continues and for the final story on

That study about Bitcoin investors and The the harving event I'm going to pass Over to Gareth jenkinson we received Some pretty interesting data from a Survey carried out by bit gate uh it Surveyed 9,748 people and 84% of those Participants so they expect Bitcoin to Surpass the 2021 bull market all-time High of $69,000 which is pretty Interesting uh considering that we are Moving into uh bull market now and Obviously we've seen Bitcoin ETFs Approved in the US which has had a bit Of an influence there as well another Takeaway which is quite interesting a Lot of these investors don't think that The Bitcoin harving are going to have a Massive impact on price and I spoke to Adam backck a couple of months ago and He gave me a similar prediction saying That you only really see uh the bull Market wind up to its highs 18 months After the Bitcoin Haring has happened Historically so we'll we'll wait to see What happens but it's pretty clear that Investors are feeling pretty bullish About bitcoin's price over the next 12 Months or so Well that was one hell of an episode but That is it for today so consider Yourself informed thank you for Listening to the ryzen crypto podcast by Coin Telegraph if you're enjoying these

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